Thoughts on Easter Appetizers

I always need to have appetizers. Actually, I'd rather just have appetizers than the big meal. They're so much more interesting. So, I'm having an Easter gathering with eight people, or so. The appetizers should be light - I'm thinking veggies are good, but they need to be different. Here's my list of possibilities:

Artichoke - I'll pull the leaves off this year. Only my SO ate them because the pulling was too hard to deal with.

Sugar Snap Peas with Sesame -

Once Upon a Plate.blogspot has a nice recipe, and her photography is lovely.

And then there are the salmon cucumber bites I made last year, or should I put the salmon on pumpernickle for a change? Pioneer Woman took an artistic shot that inspired me with the pumpernickle.

Wouldn't carrots - with the stems be cute on a bunny platter?? And how can I use the multitude of spring cookie cutters? Maybe cutting and baking tortillas would work?

Fresh Cherry Pie

The day after my neice's party we went cherry picking. The season was just finishing up so we had to do a bit of hunting. It was great fun and there were quite a few varieties of cherries. I kept taking pictures hoping they'd be fabulously artistic (Ha!)

I've also never made a cherry pie, especially from fresh cherries. There is one obstacle between the picking and the pie - the pitting. Since this might be the last time I cherry I didn't want to invest in a unitasker like a pitter. My research uncovered one recomendation to use a paper clip to pry out the pit. It took me forever to get a cupful of cherries. I hightailed it to Bristol Farms and picked up a pitter for around $3.00 and proceeded to kick myself for not doing that in the first place. Much better.

My sister had a great recipe and it came out nicely. My SO gets the cheapest pie turnover pastry things in the store so this pie was a special treat.

Here's the recipe:

1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie
4 tablespoons quick-cooking tapioca
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup white sugar
4 cups pitted cherries
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 tablespoons butter

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C). Place bottom crust in piepan. Set top crust aside, covered.

In a large mixing bowl combine tapioca, salt, sugar, cherries and extracts. Let stand 15 minutes. Turn out into bottom crust and dot with butter. Cover with top crust, flute edges and cut vents in top. Place pie on a foil lined cookie sheet --- in case of drips! Bake for 50 minutes in the preheated oven, until golden brown.

Did you know they've changed the formula for Crisco? That was the sure fire ingredient for a good pie crust. They took out the trans fats and now it makes a greasy instead of flaky crust. This formula change is causing all sorts of problems. Melinda Lee talked about it on her show last weekend.

Catching Up

OK, it's been a busy year and I have cooked and experimented the whole time, and even taken some fairly unsatisfactory photos of the recipes.

About this time last year I was determined to make a fancy cake for my neice's birthday, complete with fondant and at least one tier.

I started small with a stacked cake for a friend's birthday. The cake was supposed to look like two presents that featured a fondant bow on the top. I used Wilton colored fondant for the decorations. First I ran them through my pasta machine then cut them into strips. I formed a bow and curly ribbons. To keep the bow from collapsing I just used crumpled foil inside each of the loops. for the curly ribbons I wrapped small strips around the left over dowels (from the stacking.) It took more than a day to dry and I was lucky I allowed enough time.



I wanted to try a topsy turvey cake so I tried my hand when we had a casual family get together. Sad, very sad. Cracked fondant and strangely shaped cake layers. I'm afraid to post a picture for fear it would be featured on the Cake Wrecks site ! Here's a video tutorial from Janelle's Cakes and the post from egullet that shows what I used as a guide and goes into great detail. I didn't use the plastic pieces he refers to though.


I was getting so many wonderful ideas from Pink Cake Box and was sure that my neice would want something fancy - maybe with feathers. Finally my neice's party was planned. She had picked a the signature design from Pink Cake Box. I was slightly releived that she picked a simpler cake than I had envisioned and I managed a decent amateur version.




I made my own fondant from marshmallows. It tasted better than the Wilton stuff and was considerably cheaper. The dark brown got a bit sticky with all the food coloring I had to add.

A big new (Wilton) rolling pin and cutting board worked great for getting the sheets of fondant the right thickness. We all had fun making the ribbon roses.
There was plenty of cake left over and one of my neice's friends was having her family birthday the next day. We sent her off with the bottom teir decorated with extra ribbon roses. My attitude towards cake of this type is that they are craft projects. Once their function (edible party centerpiece) is fulfilled then it's OK to toss the cake out. It's preferable to applying it to my hips! Everyone was glad we didn't have to this time.

In July I cooked for my dog, and made some really cute cupcakes for people too. I got the idea from Family Circle and their website has a full tutorial. The hardest part of the procedure was finding the mini M&Ms. Finally I found them in the baking aisle. I had been looking in with the candy. The tongues are my favorite part. I was lucky to have left over fondant but the recipe calls for flattened out Starbursts.

At Easter a guest brought a lovely rendition of tiramisu. She said there was no recipe, but this is how she does it: take the lady fingers lay them in a 13 x 9 pan and drizzle the espresso oover. She says this lets them soak up more espresso. Make up some Oetker vanilla pudding. This may be the trickiest part - finding the German pudding. I was able to locate a package at Whole Foods. Spread some of the pudding over the lady fingers. Put on another layer of lady fingers, drizzle with espresso and add the pudding. The whole thing should be refrigerated overnight. Before serving she sprinkled with hazelnuts and decorated with jellybean eggs.

We had a BBQ for a casual Easter gathering so I made my mom's secret potato salad that everyone loves. When I asked her for her secret recipe she showed me the back of the Best Foods Mayonaise jar and told me she added some mustard seed and celery seed. Here's the oh so secret recipe:

CLASSIC POTATO SALAD

1 cup BEST FOODS Real Mayonnaise

(I use 1/2 cup first and see if it's the right consistency before adding more)

2 tablespoon vinegar

1 1/2 teaspoon Salt

1 teaspoon Sugar

1/4 teaspoon Pepper

4 cups Potatoes (5 to 6 medium) -cooked, cubed, peeled

1 cup Sliced celery

1/2 cup Chopped onion

2 Hard-cooked eggs, chopped

1/2 teaspoon each celery seed and mustard.

Combine mayonnaise, vinegar, salt, sugar and pepper. While still hot Stir in potatoes and remaining ingredients. Cover; chill. Makes 5 cups.

Yes We Have no Crab Louie

A trip to Fresno brought the promise of a traditional crab louie! In the olden days every coffee shop in the Los Angeles area offered a crab louie. When I came back from Boston in the early 80's they had disappeared off the face of the earth. There's a retro restaurant in Fresno that has them now so we made a special trip with our mouths watering, visions of giant crab chunks dancing in our heads. :( The crab delivery didn't come so they were out of crab ... sniff. The restaurant was really cool though and the weather was perfect. We watched the blossoms fall like snow. Their outdoor patio features a heated stone floor and a combo fireplace/waterfall/fountain. I had actually made traditional Crab Louie last week so I wasn't too freaked. Here's how I do it:

Lettuce, avocado wedges, tomato wedges, asparagus spears, black olives, hard boiled egg wedges and of course huge hunks of crab all festooned with thousand island dressing. I found a copycat recipe for Thousand Island Dressing that imitates Kraft. I had everything, otherwise I would have just used Kraft Thousand Island Dressing.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup mayonnaise

2 tablespoons ketchup

1 tablespoon white vinegar

2 teaspoons sugar

2 teaspoons sweet pickle relish

1 teaspoon finely minced white onion

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 dash of black pepper
Directions:
Combine all of the ingredients in a small bowl. Stir well. Place dressing in a covered container and refrigerate for several hours, stirring occasionally, so that the sugar dissolves and the flavors blend.

My sister and I are on the salad bandwagon -another stab at Weight Watchers. We love Chinese Chicken Salad. Back in the 80's this was quite cutting edge. Way back then department stores used to have restaurants right in them. The Broadway (before Macy's took over the world!) had my favorite version in their restaurant. Here's how I recreate this long lost treasure:

Chinese Chicken Salad

2 chicken breasts
1 TB chinese red pepper paste

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 garlic clove crushed

1 TB oil

1/4 cup slivered almonds

2 Tb sesame sticks (or fried wonton skins)

1 can mandarin oranges

1 bag romaine or spinach leaves

1 bottle Joey D's Chinese Chicken Salad Dressing (I've never been able to match it)

green onions and sesame seeds

Slice chicken and combine next 3 ingredients. Heat oil and saute chicken. Toss greens with dressing to taste. Add remaining ingredients.